Sox @ O's: Will Clay's mechanical fix get him back on track?

Clay Buchholz will make another attempt to fix his 2008 season tonight, when he applies a mechanical adjustment that he and Pitching Coach John Farrell have discovered. Rob Bradford reported that Bucky has been "drifting forward upon beginning his approach to the plate with runners on base, causing problems with the location of his pitches."

"It's more like a drift in my delivery," Buchholz explained. "When I'm in the windup I'm fine, but when I'm in the stretch, I go to my balance point, I pick my leg up and I'm already going forward. It's not allowing me to get the ball out of my glove and really be on top.

"We did one side by side where I waited back and threw a pitch and one where I didn't wait back. In one frame you can see the difference where my upper body is at and where my lower body is at, the right way, and in the other one it's all out of whack. Fastballs when I stay back and let myself to get on top of it its for the most part where I want to throw it, and when I don't that's when the ball tails back over the middle."

I'm praying that fixing this problem will be as simple as Buchholz makes it sound, but as I mentioned over at Centerfield (shout out for breaking this story to me), I feel like we've already experienced a mechanical adjustment with Buchholz... and it clearly didn't stick.

NESN's Jerry Remy made a good point about O's starter Daniel Cabrera last night that reminded me of Buchholz - Remy said he thinks Cabrera's body type (and temper) may be working against him... he's tall and a little lanky, and that can make it hard to consistently keep your mechanics in check.

Clay is even "lankier" (is that a word?) - leading me to wonder if he'll ever gain enough control over his body to be consistently effective for 6+ innings...

Another attempt will begin tonight as he and the Sox look to sweep the Orioles. The bad news? Bucky gave up 5 runs on 5 hits and 5 walks through 5 innings (weird!) the last time he faced the Orioles... and he's 0-6 in 9 road starts this season... The good news? He's 1-2 with a 2.12 and a .115 BAA versus the O's in his career (thanks largely to the no-hitter).

The Orioles will counter with a youngster of their own - LHP Chris Waters. Waters looked very sharp in his 2008 debut, one-hitting the Angles through 8 innings and earning the win, but he hasn't made it out the 5th in his last two starts - giving up 15 hits and 8 runs to the Rangers and Tigers... I'm guessing we'll see more of the most recent version of Waters tonight, since he was 3-6 with a 5.70 ERA through 16 starts in AAA Norfolk.

Bottom Line: Clay isn't gonna get a much better match-up than the one he has tonight, so let's hope this latest tweak to his delivery, get him and the Sox a much need victory tonight.

Who to Watch: Lefties are batting .750 against Waters, so Look for Ortiz to keep stroking the ball (4-8 with 2 doubles and 2 walks this series) as well as Sean Casey (.379 vs LHP) and Jed Lowrie (.357) ... and Dustin Pedroia is riding yet another hitting-streak - 7 games ... Brian Roberts had 3 hits last night and is 3 for 7 against Buchholz ... the rest of the O's are a combined 6 for 41 (.146) ... Ramon Hernanadez has a hit in 14 of 15 games in August, but he's literally had just ONE hit in 11 of those games for a modest .281 BA on the month...